[Guide] Tal Set + CrowdControl Solo T6 Build (No Unity)

I recently got the gears/build that I am comfortable soloing in T6, since I have received great amount of information from the forum and people's profiles, this is my attempt to contribute back to the community. I hope it will help some wizards play in Torment 6.

Overview: This build is geared for soloing Torment 6 without depending on Unity+Follower for survival. It uses crowd control spells, Frost Nova, Black Hole with 40%+CDR for survival. The lack of damage from the crowd controls spells are compensated by Tal Rasha's 4-set bonus which synergizes very well with the spells.

* These are optional skills for your primary source of damage. I use these spells because I am using Mirror Ball in fire build. I also don't have lightning spell because I am using Thundefury.

Frost Nova(Cold Snap) with 40%+ CDR will only allow enemies to move ~1 second. For example if you have 40% CDR, cooldown of Frost Nova becomes 4.5 seconds, and the spell freezes enemies for 3 seconds, so enemies can only move for 1.5 second if you keep casting the spell.

Black Hole immobilizes enemies for 2 seconds, which is long enough to fill that 1.5 second window that enemies can move between Frost Novas. It gathers enemies in a single spot which makes it easy for you to freeze more enemies with Frost Nova and hit Meteors, initial impact + ground effects. Event Horizon rune is great but optional, you can use different rune if 4th element is needed.

Frost Nova -> Black Hole -> Frost Nova will lock enemies down for 8 seconds, while only allowing ~1 second window for them to move.However, some Elites will have crowd control reduction, which allows them to move for a short duration of time. This is why you still need defensive stats from your gear and defensive spells such as Energy Armor / Blur.

To maximize the effect of crow control, keep an eye on enemie's attack animations. You do not need to freeze enemies, while they are swinging axes up in the air, instead freeze them as soon as they swing the axe down towards you the attack animation will reset if it's disrupted. Also, you can take damage that can be regenerated back in 3-5 seconds with your Life on Hit and Health Regen while they are cc'ed.

Passive:

Evocation

Elemental Exposure

Blur

Audacity / Unwavering Will

Evocation provides free 20% cooldown reduction. It helps you reach 40%+ CDR very easily. Elemental Exposure is great in combination with Tal Rasha's set. Blur for survival during the time enemies can move. And Unwavering will is some what optional, but it is relatively easy to be stationed since enemies are cc'ed most of the time. I prefer Audacity since I am often in close range with enemies.

Gears:

Tal Rasha's 4 set

40%+ Cooldown Reduction

Tal Rasha's set bonus synergizes very well with the frost nova and black hole so I will say it is the core of the build. Since gear selections can vary, I will list items/set to reach the 40%+ cooldown reduction without losing critical stats such as critical hit chance/damage.
On a side note, when gearing your character, do not neglect secondary stats! It's a great way to boost your survivability.

T6 is doable, though cindercoat or APOC is a must, you have to cast 4-5 fireballs in a row and have at least 10 mil toughness self buffed.

If you can use cindercoat + tal rasha's 4set, meteor shower would be a great offensive skill choice that can be used with this build. You can still get 40%+ cdr wothout losing damage and it might help make life easier in torment 6.

The thing about this build is that it's very flexible with gears/offensive skills. I guess it's more of a survival guide than a build guide.

My question really is, what is considered doable? Being able to efficiently farm T6 is more than unlikely. You can get a lot of toughness and low damage and use a kiting build to kill stuff on T6 if that is your thing. What is the most efficient torment level to farm is the biggest question. Sure, one can do T6 but it won't be efficient.

How long does it take to kill an elite pack using this build? What are your chances of death when multiple packs are engaged? Ranged mobs that are out of range and shooting you and you cannot frost nova or black hole them?

I agree everyone has different view on "doable". That's why I left out offense in this guide, and primary damage skills are optional. It varies too much with gears players own, and it's up to the player to decide what's tolerable. So my intention was to share how I survive T6.
Efficiency for farming is another topic since this guide is specific for surviving T6 solo without unity.

To answer your question I believe a video of this build in action will be the best way to give ideas since everything just depends. Sometimes I kill elites within 10 seconds, sometimes I have to move around more, sometimes I die.
Ranged attackers can be tough in some situation. It's easier to dodge and block projectiles with event horizon when you can keep melee guys frozen for most of the time. Vortex and Shield can be rough since vortex into something nasty cannot be prevented, and shield blocks your cc.

To give you a better idea, these are my criteria for comfort:

Can kill goblins before they open port.

Can kill goblin even in during a fight vs elite.

Takes less than 30 seconds to kill most elites even in nasty situations.

Can handle 2 elite packs without dying.

0 deaths in rift is the goal. If I die more than 3 times it annoys me very much.

That's pretty good. I think the best judge of efficiency, at least for me, is when using nemesis bracers on a shrine, you kill the pack in about 2-3 seconds. Anything longer than 10 seconds on a pack is just wasted time in my opinion. But it's great to see that this is already possible. I'm sure at 1000+ paragon levels T6 will feel like T3.

My question really is, what is considered doable? Being able to efficiently farm T6 is more than unlikely. You can get a lot of toughness and low damage and use a kiting build to kill stuff on T6 if that is your thing. What is the most efficient torment level to farm is the biggest question. Sure, one can do T6 but it won't be efficient.
How long does it take to kill an elite pack using this build? What are your chances of death when multiple packs are engaged? Ranged mobs that are out of range and shooting you and you cannot frost nova or black hole them?

On average I am able to kill an elite within 20 seconds, sometimes more depenting on their affixes and type of monster (ghosts suck) - shield/extra hp, and you have to learn kiting with a metoer build or it wont be as good. And yes, you are in big trouble when facing 2 elite packs.

Hi, thanks for trying it out!The reason I chose Molten Impact over Meteor Shower is because my main source of damage is Magic Missles(MM)/Conflagate. With Mirrorball MM/Conflagate build, you need to keep casting Conflagate for increased damage over time (you need to hit enemies withtin 3 seconds with Conflagate to keep the stack), and spender without cooldown interrupts it. Molten impact has a cooldown so I cannot cast it more than once, while still providing a big spike in damage, also this spells scales in damage with more cooldown you get.
With 42% increased damage for Magic Missile on my gear, each of my magic missile hit for 4-7M (depending on Elite/White), and on boss fights such as rift boss, conflagate damage over time + meter ground effects tick for about 50m-100m by the end of the fight.

I was also wondering if I could find a way to spend more AP, however I decided it's more of a blessing that MM is so strong with Mirror Ball.

To take advantage ofyour cindercoat, you can try using meteor shower as your primary damage source, with more meteor damage in your gear. You can use prodigy instead of unwavering will to regen the AP faster to spam meteor shower.

Finished streaming. Streamed for 2 hours and ran 7 rifts. So about 15-20min average per rift. Had a good one and a bad one, so I will try to post the video on youtube showing how it's like in bad rift and how it is in the other.